Yidong Zhang

Having worked at a maths and English tuition centre for First Class Learning from April 2016 to July 2017 and working with National Citizen Service The Challenge summer youth programme as an associate mentor between June and July 2016, I firmly believe I am completely capable of helping other people thrive through studies, relationships and lots of other areas as their personal professional development, creating close connections with them and understanding their individual goals, needs, concerns and struggles at a much more intrapersonal level. Behaviour and classroom management were among my top key skills and abilities that I gradually enhanced whilst working within a classroom setting of a relatively small group of about ten to fifteen children between the ages of 8 to 13, a few of whom had autism and behavioural issues in which my manager had to transfer me and those students to an isolated area where I could work with them at a one-to-one basis and get to know why they acted and communicated the way they did on top of offering help and support with their maths and English. I have also personally covered classes myself as part of an agency and am currently looking for long-term teaching roles with potential progression for future career development during the new year of 2024. During my time working within these schools, colleges and academies, my daily duties included checking in at the reception desk, referring to the cover lead manager to be provided with my timetable and separate class registers for throughout the day, completing every register within 10 minutes into the lesson and asking a sensible student to return to reception once completed before reporting back to senior cover manager about how my day proceeded at the end. Not only did I enjoy working with staff and students across all secondary year groups, but I have also received really positive feedback from the cover lead managers mentioning how I was willing to travel significant distance to work with an early start every day, despite having come all the way from the south side of Birmingham showing complete commitment and very strong work ethic in the eyes of the agency and senior cover managers. This is in addition to several students stating how much they wished they could have me back as their teacher, demonstrating the fact that they perceived me as a real ‘role model’ who they could learn a lot from as I was able to interact with them at their level with words of encouragement and some sense of light humour. As a result, I strongly believe that my previous knowledge and experience along with transferable skillset having worked with wide range of various jobs in school settings will be able to help me perform well within this role. Although I currently do not hold professional PGCE teaching qualifications, I have obtained relevant training certificates including Special Needs Awareness – Pathway, An Introduction to Managing Behaviour, Spot and Support: PTSD, An Introduction to Safeguarding: Secondary Schools accredited by Creative Education.